The way in which the electromagnetic signals are encoded to

convey data determines the efficiency and reliability of the

transmission

Data Signal
Entities that convey Electric or
meaning or information electromagnetic
Transmission representation of data
The communication of Signaling
data across a computer The physical propagation
network by the of the signal along a
propagation and communication medium
processing
of signals
Analog data
Continuous values on some interval
Voice and video
Data collected by sensors, such as temperature and
pressure
Digital data
Discrete values
Text, integers, binary data

Signals are used to encode and transmit data

Analog signal
Continuously varying electromagnetic wave that may
be transmitted over both guided and unguided media
Digital signal
Sequence of voltage pulses
Generally cheaper than analog signaling
Less susceptible to noise interference
Suffer more from attenuation than analog signals
Cannot be used on optical fiber or wireless media
 Modem
Transmitter (modulator/demodulator)
technologies use Coverts binary voltage pulses by
modulating a carrier frequency
modulation
Demodulates the signal to recover
techniques that the original data at the other end
enable sound and/or Codec (coder/decoder)
video waveforms to Takes an analog signal and
be conveyed as approximates that signal by a bit
stream
electromagnetic At the other end of a line the bit
waveforms over wires stream is used to
or airwaves reconstruct the
analog data
 Digital data, Analog data, Digital data, Analog data,
digital signal digital signal analog signal analog signal
• The • Conversion • Some • Analog data
equipment of analog transmission are easily
for encoding data to media, such converted to
digital data digital form as optical an analog
into a digital permits the fiber and signal
signal is less use of satellite, only
complex and modern propagate
less digital analog
expensive transmission signals
than digital- and
to-analog switching
equipment equipment
Analog transmission
Only transmits analog signals, without regard for data
content
Attenuation overcome with amplifiers
Signal is not evaluated or regenerated
Digital transmission
Transmits analog or digital signals
Uses repeaters rather than amplifiers
Switching equipment evaluates and regenerates signal
Cost – large scale and very large scale integration has
caused continuing drop in cost
Data Integrity – effect of noise and other impairments
is reduced
Capacity Utilization – high capacity is more easily and
cheaply achieved with time division rather than
frequency division
Security and Privacy – Encryption possible
Integration – All signals (voice, video, image, data)
treated the same
Analog or digital data must be converted into a signal for purposes of
transmission

The mapping from binary digits to signal elements is the encoding

scheme for transmission

The basis for analog encoding is a continuous constant frequency

signal known as the carrier signal

Modulation
The conversion of digital signals to analog form

Demodulation
The conversion of analog data signals back
to digital form
 Digital data are
The amplitude (or height)
represented as variations in
of the sine wave varies to
the different amplitudes of
transmit the ones and zeros
the carrier wave

Is susceptible to sudden
gain changes from noise,
distortions, and other
Inexpensive
signal impairments making
it a rather inefficient
modulation technique

Also used to transmit

digital data over optical
fiber
 Simplest form is binary FSK
Digital information is
(BFSK) in which the two
transmitted through discrete
binary values are represented
frequency changes of the
by two different frequencies
carrier wave
near the carrier frequency

Advantages:
• Less susceptible to noise than ASK
• Is easy to decode Is commonly used for high
• Often has a better signal-to-noise frequency radio transmission
ratio than ASK
• Is a signaling option supported by
most dial-up modems
The phase of the carrier Is more noise resistant
signal is shifted to and efficient than ASK
encode data or FSK

A four-phase system
Is widely used in
(quadrature phase-shift
business networks,
keying, QPSK) could
especially wireless
encode two bits with
networks
each signal burst

QFSK can be used to

double the data rate
while maintaining the
same bandwidth
Techniques may be combined
A common combination is PSK and ASK, where
some or all of the phase shifts may occur at one
or two amplitudes
Is commonly used in today’s networks
Examples:
56 Kbps dial-up modems
Digital subscriber line (DSL) modems
Gigabit Ethernet networks
Continue to be one of the most widely used pieces
of communications gear
Is a device that modulates an analog carrier wave
to encode digital information
Also demodulates the signals it receives to decode
transmitted information
Direct broadcast satellite, Wi-Fi, and mobile phones
use modems to communicate
Three popular types are:
Voice-grade
Cable
ADSL
Differential version is NRZI (NRZ, invert on ones)

Change=1, no change=0

Advantage of differential encoding is that it is

more reliable to detect a change in polarity
than it is to accurately detect a specific level
Difficult to determine where one bit ends and
the next begins

In NRZ-L, long strings of ones and zeroes

would appear as constant voltage pulses

Timing is critical because any drift results in

lack of synchronization and incorrect bit
values being transmitted
Require at least one transition per bit time,
and may even have two
Modulation rate is greater, so bandwidth
requirements are higher
Maximum modulation rate is twice NRZ
Advantages
Synchronization due to predictable transitions
Error detection based on absence of a transition
Transition in the middle of each bit period

Transition provides clocking and data

Low-to-high=1 , high-to-low=0

Used in Ethernet and other LANs

Midbit transition is only for clocking

Transition at beginning of bit period=0

Transition absent at beginning=1

Has added advantage of differential encoding

Used in token-ring
Voice-generated sound wave can be represented by an
electromagnetic signal with the same frequency
components and transmitted on a voice-grade
telephone line
Modulation can produce a new analog signal that
conveys the same information but occupies a different
frequency band
A higher frequency may be needed for effective
transmission
Analog-to-analog modulation permits frequency-division
multiplexing

Block of bits transmitted in a
steady stream without start and
stop codes
Clocks of transmitter and receiver
must somehow be synchronized
• Provide a separate clock line between Each block begins with a preamble
transmitter and receiver - - - works well bit pattern and generally ends
over short distances
• Embed the clocking information in the
with a postamble bit pattern
data signal

Involves the use of a data link

The data plus preamble, control procedure which
postamble, and control automatically detects
information are called a frame transmission error and causes a
frame in error to be retransmitted
All transmission media have potential for
introduction of errors
All data link layer protocols must provide a
method for controlling errors
Error control process has two components
Error detection
Redundancy introduced so that the occurrence of an
error will be detected
Error correction
Receiver and transmitter cooperate to retransmit frames
that were in error
 The ability of
parity checking to
Bit added to each
detect errors is
character to make Noise impulses
dependent on the
all bits add up to Good for are often long
total number of
an even number detecting single- enough to
bits corrupted by
(even parity) or bit errors only destroy more
noise impulses
odd number than one bit
and the parity
(odd parity)
convention that is
used
 Data in
frame is
17-bit
treated as
One of the divisor
a single
most leaves
binary For a CRC
common 16-bit
number, of length N, Overhead
and remainder,
divided by errors is low (1-
powerful 33-bit
a unique undetected 3%)
error- divisor
prime are 2-N
detecting leaves
binary, and
codes 32-bit
remainder
remainder
is attached
to frame
  Asynchronous
 Analog and digital data transmission
communications
 Synchronous
 Data encoding transmission
techniques
 Analog encoding of  Error detection
digital information  The need for error
 Digital encoding of control
analog information  Parity checks
 Digital encoding of  Cyclic redundancy
digital data
check
 Analog encoding of
analog information

Chapter 5: Data Communication Fundamentals